Solstice gathering marks longest night, sun’s return

The Rev. Leonetta Bugleisi and her Farmington Hills congregation will celebrate the season on Dec. 20 — and you’re invited to the festivities.

Just one word of advice if you plan to attend: Leave the green and red trappings, the Santa Claus decorations, the Hanukkah dreidels at home.

The “A Celtic Solstice” event at Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington will focus on nature’s reason for the season in a “non-commercial” observance.

“It’s a seasonal approach to Earth’s changes. We keep it reflective. This is different than a Sunday service. It’s more participatory. The guests are part of the service. They’re not coming to be preached to, or given a message,” Bugleisi said.

“We’re symbolically going through what is happening in nature...that this is the longest night of the year and the days start getting longer after the 21st.”

The celebration will begin at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 20, at the church, 25301 Halsted, Farmington Hills. Guests are invited to wear gold, silver or black to symbolize the sun, stars and night sky.

“If people want to show up in blue jeans and a sweatshirt, that is fine, too,” Bugleisi noted. “We do responsive readings, meditation. This year we’ll have messages of peace and there will be a memento of the day.”

Musical soloists, stories, drumming, chanting and guitar music will round out the celebration that recognizes the change of season on Dec. 21.

Music, dancing

Although Bugleisi is fairly new to the congregation — she became its minister in April — she has led the winter solstice at churches in Rochester, Minnesota, Missouri and Illinois over the past 24 years.

Her husband, Michael Murphy, has attended all of the solstice services since they married 20 years ago.

“Sometimes I’ll play music. I play tin whistle and guitar. If she does theater, I’ll do various roles. Over the last several yeas I’ve done readings and such,” Murphy said. “It’s a nice celebration of traditions from around the world. It’s contemplative and often at the end of the service we have people up and dancing which is cool.

“I think people walk away feeling good. It’s spiritually uplifting.”

The changing season compels some celebrants to review the past year and set goals for the next. The folktales, myths, and science that are woven together in the ritual help participants meditate on the cycles of death and rebirth, shadow and light, joy and sorrow. Many of the solstice stories and practices pre-date Christianity. Monuments at both Stonehenge and a cave at Newgrange in Ireland were built so that they aligned with the solstice. At Newgrange, for example, a shaft of sunlight penetrates the cave’s central chamber at dawn on the winter solstice.

Light over darkness

Bugleisi said the winter solstice is universally celebrated in all cultures because it signifies the start of gradually lengthening days and the return of the sun.

“The upshot of the songs and reveling is that the more noise we make and happiness we have, the sun will come back.”

She said the symbolism of the sunlight emerging after the longest, dark night, helps remind individuals that “we affirm each other by the light carried in each of us.”

“It’s reflective of the light that Jesus carried to the world. We‘re taking a meditative pause to see how nature promised that the light will come back. It engages us to choose light over darkness.

“For me, there is power there, especially in these times we live in. The weather almost forces us to come inside and reflect and slow down. It gives you time to pause and you know the hope of the universe is that the world will shift and change and the light will come back.

“It’s interesting that one of the songs incorporated into a lot of church services today is the song from Frozen — Let it go. That is what we’re trying to do — let go of negativity and bring in the light.”

Bugleisi calls the winter solstice celebration “interfaith and poetic.” She stresses that it is not meant to supplant other religious celebrations, such as Hanukkah and Christmas.

“As Unitarian Universalists we acknowledge Hanukkah and light the menorah. We read the story of Jesus and bring in the nativity scene,” she said. “We’re not saying the solstice is more important. It’s giving us additional time for reflection.”

For more about the Universalist Unitarian Church of Farmington, visit uufarmington.org.